Tufts Blogs

My first year at Tufts was full of theatergoing, much of which was well needed as a self-proclaimed fake theater kid — that is, I love musicals (and straight plays too, though admittedly to a lesser extent), but am also embarrassingly unfamiliar with most of them.

I’d be remiss not to, first, mention the vibrant theater scene at Tufts itself. Of course, nothing beats walking over to one of our performance spaces on campus to see a show starring our talented students, of which there are several each semester! Our very own Department of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies stages faculty-directed productions, like this spring’s impressive and disturbingly timely productions of the classic Kander and Ebb musical Cabaret and Martyna Majok’s recent play Sanctuary City. Student organizations Torn Ticket II and 3Ps present multiple musicals and multiple plays (respectively) each semester as well, produced completely by students. I thoroughly enjoyed these groups’ wide range of productions this past year, which included some more lighthearted works, like Torn Ticket II’s 24-hour production of Grease in the fall (rehearsed in only 24 hours) and 3Ps’ spring production of farce Noises Off. The 2024-25 school year even saw productions of multiple student-written shows: Envision Black Theater produced the musical Almanac, originally written by two now-graduated Tufts students for its premiere at Tufts in 2021, and 3Ps staged The Ghazzali Dossier, written and directed by junior Mishaal Hussain.

But it’s also great to get off campus to see a show! Seeing theater has been one of my favorite ways to take advantage of Tufts’ location, with super easy access to Boston. There are tons of opportunities to see professional theater in the Boston area, many of which offer significant discounts with your Tufts ID! For example, many Broadway national tours come through the beautiful historic venues of Boston’s theater district, and they almost always offer a student rush option.

For student rush, you typically line up at the box office a couple hours before the show for discounted tickets — usually in the $20-$30 range, for seats that can otherwise cost well over $100 (!!) — subject to availability. To be honest, I don’t know how well-known this deal is. Sometimes there are already people in line for rush tickets when I get there, sometimes it’s empty. So let’s consider this a secret tip between you and me. Information about student rush for these tours is typically posted on either the Broadway in Boston Instagram, or sometimes on the Instagram profile of the specific venue, in the days leading up to the show’s local run. I’ve seen a few shows this way now, and I’ve had pretty good luck with it!

Right before final exams in December I saw the national tour of SIX — a huge bucket list show for me — at the Emerson Colonial Theatre. I invited (forced) some friends to come with me and we hopped on the Green Line to Boston (our subway stop right on campus gets you downtown in around 25 minutes). We were some of the first ones in line, so we quickly got our $30 tickets and ventured out into the now-pouring rain to grab dinner in nearby Chinatown before returning for the show. Our seats were in the orchestra, only a few rows back — easily some of the best seats I had ever had for a show like that — and it was so much fun. On the way back to campus, inspired by the show, we decided which of us were which of King Henry VIII’s six wives. That was a perfect night for me.

There are also a ton of professional regional theater companies in the area offering their own exciting seasons of musicals and plays featuring local and national actors, many of which also offer great discounts for college students, either through student-priced advance tickets or a student rush: Huntington Theatre Company, the American Repertory Theater at Harvard, Wheelock Family Theatre… just to name a few.

These theaters tend to have discount pages on their websites with details on how to access student-priced tickets, and the Arts section of The Tufts Daily (our campus newspaper) often publishes great reviews of local productions. Seeing SpeakEasy Stage Company’s A Man of No Importance ($15 student rush!) in the intimate Roberts Studio Theatre at the Calderwood Pavilion in the South End was a highlight of my spring semester. Also in the spring, I went with a friend to see an original play that her Tufts theater professor was directing in its premiere at Boston Playwrights’ Theatre — that was super cool.

The other colleges and universities in the area also produce fantastic productions with affordable tickets, whether it be through their theater departments or their student clubs. Just next door in Cambridge, I enjoyed seeing a couple of really great musicals produced by the Harvard-Radcliffe Dramatic Club this past year. It’s fun to poke around other colleges for a bit and it’s another great way to explore the area beyond the Tufts bubble. Productions at schools like Emerson College and Boston Conservatory are at an even higher level, featuring the work of BFA students training to be the next generation of industry professionals.

Seeing theater productions with my friends has been such a great way to get off campus, explore for a bit, and take a break from school work, and they are always something I look forward to. There are so many interesting ones playing throughout the year that I can only ever make it to a small portion of them. I would encourage you to see some shows and take advantage of our culturally rich and artistically vibrant area!